


Bloody Beans

by princessoftheworlds



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Episode: s03e03 Children of Earth - Day 3, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27900901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessoftheworlds/pseuds/princessoftheworlds
Summary: Ianto worries about his relationship with Jack and is comforted by Rhys and a pot of beans.
Relationships: Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	Bloody Beans

**Author's Note:**

> Self-explanatory! Enjoy!

The beans are done.

The beans Rhys’d been cooking are finally done, and Jack’s run out without a word, the way he sometimes does but has been doing in increasing frequency since the Hub blew up.

Ianto stares down at his paper plate of steaming beans and a piece or two of slightly-charred bread and sighs. The last few days have been an absolute hellish rollercoaster, and this is the first time he’s really had a chance to sit down and reflect, and _of course,_ Jack’s not here.

“You okay, mate?” Rhys asks as he passes by Ianto, a raggedy towel wrapped around the handle of his pot of beans. “Those beans aren’t going to eat themselves.”

Rhys settles down against the creaky chair opposite Ianto, using a plastic spoon to eat straight from the pot. Ordinarily, Ianto would glance up and furrow his brow or wrinkle his nose in disgust, but he can’t bring himself to. Instead, he slumps his shoulders and takes a bite of his toast.

He _needs_ to talk to someone, to quell his sudden doubts about him and Jack, but his ideal option - Gwen - is gone, and while he and Rhys have definitely grown closer since the trains incident, to the point where Rhys is no longer Gwen’s boyfriend/husband Rhys but _Rhys_ to him, Ianto doesn’t know if…

The words slip out before he can allow him: “In all your years with Gwen, has it ever felt like she was slipping way from you?”

“Pardon?” Rhys freezes with a spoonful of beans half-way to his mouth. He resumes the action, chews, and swallows the beans before setting the spoon down and facing Ianto with a thoughtful expression. “In the sense that she was growing more and more distant from me?”

Ianto nods and raises his eyebrows when Rhys laughs suddenly.

“Sorry, sorry,” the other man says. “I shouldn’t laugh at you, Ianto, mate. It’s just that…” He chuckles once more before calming down, straightening his shoulders. “There was this time, right after she joined Torchwood, where it felt like for months, she was a different person. That she was keeping a big secret from me.”

“And she was,” Ianto surmises.

Rhys nods. “And she was. And it turns out, she’d only lied to me because she thought she was protecting me, because your Captain Jack had told her to.” He picks up his spoon again. “Take it from a married man, Ianto. Sometimes, the ones we love will lie to us because they think they’re trying to protect us. It’s your job to make them understand that whatever it is, you can face it together.”

“I guess,” replies Ianto, but he knows he stil sounds hesitant, because as reassuring and well-intended Rhys’s advice was, it hasn’t quelled any of Ianto’s doubts.

“And if it’s your Jack you’re thinking of,” Rhys says, gesturing now with his spoon and accidentally fllinging bits of beans everywhere, causing Ianto to grimace, “I wouldn’t worry too much. That man’s never going to leave you; he loves you too much. If you could have seen his expression when he made his way from the cement block, you would know…that’s the way Gwen looked at me after I killed that Nostrovite.”

Blushing brightly, Ianto ducks his head and doesn’t respond. 

Finally, Rhys says, “Take my word for it, mate. Jack Harkness loves you, and he’s not going anywhere from you any time soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr [here](http://princess-of-the-worlds.tumblr.com/) or on Twitter [here](https://twitter.com/rajkumarinik). I tweet and reblog mostly Torchwood with occasionally amusing commentary on nonsense. Please come talk to me and tell me if/how much you like my fic or like ask me about it on tumblr; all my schoolwork has become remote now, and I have limited social interaction.


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